This is a guest post by Rich Gorman veteran in direct response marketing and advertising.
Is social media replacing SEO? (Illustration: © rubysoho – Fotolia.com)
Website owners sometimes find it hard to understand that when it comes to social media marketing and SEO, making choices between both is not the recommended strategy. For best results one needs to leverage social media websites with SEO.
However, instances are galore and every other day we come across reports that a company has focused all their efforts in social media marketing ignoring the need and imperatives of SEO.
Forgoing SEO to devise leverage from social media is not the recommended strategy and you will incur losses in the long run, in case you are planning to dump SEO strategies for short term gains. Read on to have a better understanding of the same.
1.) You are not the owner of social profile
Unlike SEO, managing and owning the social profile is not entirely in your hands. As an example you can think about the facebook like an apartment complex with you business page being one of the tenants. Facebook can throw you away, even at the smallest inclination.
You may have to face an uneasy situation, in case the social media websites decides to permanently delete your page. All your reputation built across clients and companies will be erased in a moment causing irreparable losses for the business.
Remember, if your online presence is built around social media platforms as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you are taking a calculated risk.
Social media websites as Facebook take away all the hard earned credit that could have added to your business, in case you had focused more on developing your SEO presence. Every time a visitor comes across your facebook page, the social media website reaps the benefit.
You may end up loosing the advertisement credit too as Facebook earns from the advertisements it posts on your company page.
However, the only silver lining that emerges in favor of social media marketing is that it is relatively cheap to manage a facebook page and it might give you a wide coverage as compared to having your own SEO strategy. Take your pick and choose wisely.
2.) Social media websites are not for ever
MySpace was a popular social media platform until late. However, its fortunes have dwindled and the social media websites has relatively vanished from the scene. Putting all your weight behind the social media websites is not a recommended strategy as they can fade into the dark any time causing great business losses to you. Having your own SEO presence is a smart business strategy as the website will be around, until the time you decide to hang your boots.
A smarter strategy would be to ensure a healthy mix between social media marketing and maintaining your own SEO presence. This way you can derive benefits from both and can help your business prosper as per the needs of the market.
3.) Social media is not used for searching
People use social media platforms for connecting with family and friends more often. Those interested in looking for a particular service focus rather on specific websites. Keep this fact in mind before investing all your might in the social media platform.
Social media has been able to bring a revolution in enriching our social circle but if you are considering deriving business benefits from this platform, a viable solution is to maintain a healthy collaboration between these websites and SEO. Take your pick and decide wisely.
Post from: eWritings - Online Public Relations
Is Social Media Marketing Replacing SEO?